Village Wines' former owner accused in fraud scheme

Oct. 8, 2013

Hoyt Hill Jr.

Written by

Jamie McGee

The Tennessean

The former owner of Village Wines, a Hillsboro Village wine store, has been accused of misrepresentation and fraud related to more than $65,000 in financing provided by local investors.

Previous owner Hoyt Hill Jr. solicited investors to purchase “presold” cases of high-end wine — in one case offering a $12,500 return on the resale of 15 cases — and failed to deliver, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Davidson County Chancery Court.

Village Wines’ non-alcohol assets have since been sold to Coat Door LLC, an entity that is planning a new wine shop for the location, according to Al Taylor, a member of the group.

Hill “fraudulently misrepresented that he had presold old and rare wines so that he could solicit monies from trusting investors” and “unjustly enriched himself,” according to the court documents.

In June 2012, plaintiff Tim Bowden, a Village Wines patron and attorney, was contacted by Hill with a chance to co-invest in a “very rare 2009 Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage.”

Bowden and Hill would each buy 15 cases for $25,000, and when the cases arrived, Hill would sell the 30 cases for $75,000. According to the court documents, Hill pitched the deal as having “zero risk” since the wine was presold.

When solicited for a second deal, Bowden reached out to his friend Jeff Kendig, and both investors were eventually guaranteed $35,000 for a different wine, but the wine was not actually purchased and the returns never appeared, the lawsuit contends.

Bowden and Kendig are both seeking $75,000 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in punitive damages, the documents say.

In a separate filing, Baggott Law, led by Roland Baggott III, another Village Wines customer, accused Hill and his wife, Elizabeth Hill, of fraud and intentional misrepresentation.

Hill had offered Baggott a chance to invest in 10 cases of wine for $16,675 to reap a $3,325 return when they were resold, according to the lawsuit filed in September in Davidson County Chancery Court.

Baggott is seeking $16,675 in actual damages and up to $500,000 in punitive damages.

Hill declined to comment and referred The Tennessean to his lawyer. The lawyer, Elliott Jones, did not return calls seeking comment.